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Addiction in
South and East Africa
Interdisciplinary
Approaches
Edited by
Yamikani Ndasauka
Grivas Muchineripi Kayange
Addiction in South and East Africa
 Yamikani Ndasauka
Grivas Muchineripi Kayange
Editors

Addiction in South
and East Africa
Interdisciplinary Approaches
Editors
Yamikani Ndasauka Grivas Muchineripi Kayange
Chancellor College Chancellor College
University of Malawi University of Malawi
Zomba, Malawi Zomba, Malawi

ISBN 978-3-030-13592-8    ISBN 978-3-030-13593-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13593-5

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
­publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
­institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Marina Lohrbach_shutterstock.com

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Preface

This work is an interdisciplinary volume that investigates addiction in

Africa, particularly in South and East Africa. The contributors of this vol-
ume are experts in different fields including psychology, chemistry, biol-
ogy, African philosophy, ethics, literature, anthropology and cultural
studies. The chapters are mainly dependent on original research given that
there is not much that has been written on the subject of addiction in
Africa. The book has therefore responded to the gap of knowledge on
addiction in Africa.
Apart from the provision of knowledge, the book has discussed and
attempted to provide solutions to specific issues regarding drug abuse and
addiction, alcohol abuse and addiction, and sex addiction. Drug and alco-
hol abuse have been on the rise in Africa and have proved to be hazardous
for the African continent. Among the different causes of deaths in Africa,
abuse and addiction have led to premature deaths, mainly among the
youths. Similarly, sex addiction has negatively affected development in
Africa, due to its role in increasing sexually transmitted diseases, such as
HIV/AIDS and related diseases.
The information in this edited volume is suitable for a broad category
of readers, including both academics and non-academics. The book will be
a good source of reference for different university students (undergradu-
ate and post-graduate) across disciplines, researchers in various fields (in
research centres), organisations working with the youth (such as World
Health Organisation and UNESCO), psychologists, philosophers, lin-
guists, cultural critiques, public health practitioners and legal practitioners.

v
vi PREFACE

It is with great pleasure that we consider this work as providing a

­ enuine background for any further research on addiction in the south,
g
east and other parts of Africa. It is further opening a possible dialogue with
the studies of addiction that were and are currently being done in different
parts of the world.

Zomba, Malawi Yamikani Ndasauka

 Grivas Muchineripi Kayange
 Acknowledgements

We thank all contributors for making this work possible. We also thank
Professor Richard Tambulasi, the principal of Chancellor College, and
Dr. Japhet Bakuwa, the dean of Faculty of Humanities, for allowing us
some days off to put together the chapters of the book. Finally, a huge
thanks should go to members of Philosophy Department at Chancellor
College for encouraging us as we undertook this project.

vii
 Contents

1 Introduction: Making a Case for Addiction in Africa  1

Yamikani Ndasauka and Grivas Muchineripi Kayange
References  6

Part I Conceptualization of Addiction   7

2 Addiction in the Light of African Values: Undermining

Vitality and Community  9
Thaddeus Metz
2.1 Introduction  9
2.2 Addiction, Immorality, and Western Ethics 11
2.3 Addiction as Incompatible with Vitality 17
2.4 Addiction as Incompatible with Community 21
2.5 Concluding Remarks on Responding to Addiction 26
References 28

3 Cannabis Use and Addiction in African Communities; a

Value or a Vice? 33
Grivas Muchineripi Kayange
3.1 Introduction 33
3.2 Cannabis Use and Addiction in Africa 35
3.3 Cannabis as a Value in African Communities 39

ix
x CONTENTS

3.4 Cannabis as a Vice and Illegal in African Communities  43

3.5 Conclusion  46
References 46

4 The Moral Question of Addiction: An African

Philosophical Perspective 49
Wilfred Lajul
4.1 Introduction  49
4.2 Literature and Theory  52
4.3 Discussion  58
4.4 Implications  62
4.5 Conclusion  65
References 66

5 An Ubuntu Approach to Addiction-Response Framework

in Malawian Schools 71
Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu
5.1 Introduction  71
5.2 Autonomy, Neoliberalism, the School, and Addiction  76
5.3 Ubuntu-Responsive Frameworks to Addiction  81
5.4 Conclusion  87
References 88

Part II Addiction in Literature and Popular Culture  91

6 Oral Traditions: A Tool for Understanding Alcohol and

Drug Addiction in Swaziland 93
Telamisile Phumlile Mkhatshwa and Gloria Baby Malambe
6.1 Introduction  93
6.2 Songs and Addiction  96
6.3 Proverbs and Traditional Terms and Addiction 100
6.4 Conclusion 102
References 103

7 Sex Addiction in Contemporary African Fiction:

An Analysis of Selected Works of Short Fiction105
Beaton Galafa
7.1 Introduction 105
7.2 Understanding Sexual Addiction 107
 CONTENTS xi

7.3 The Concept of Sexual Addiction in Selected Works 109

7.4 Gender Representation 115
7.5 Age and Addiction to Sex 118
7.6 Morality and Addiction to Sex 120
7.7 Conclusion 121
References122

8 Popular Culture and Representations of Addiction:

Understanding Malawi Urban Music in the Narratives of
Drugs and Sex125
Dave Mankhokwe Namusanya
8.1 Introduction 125
8.2 Understanding Urban Music in Malawi 127
8.3 Understanding Addiction 129
8.4 Representations of Addiction in Popular Culture 130
8.5 Conclusion 138
References139

9 Semiotic Creativity and Innovation: Offshoots of Social

Media Addiction143
Hambaba Jimaima and Gabriel Simungala
9.1 Introduction: The Internet and Social Media 143
9.2 Internet and Social Media in Zambia: Perspectives on
Addiction 144
9.3 Theoretical and Methodological Appraisal 146
9.4 Conceptualizing Social Media 147
9.5 Semiotic Creativity and Innovation 148
9.6 Globalization and the Production of Locality 153
9.7 Conclusion 154
References155

10 Macho Rhetoric in Alcohol Addiction: The Narratives of

Masculinities among Malawian Youths157
Anthony Mavuto Gunde
10.1 Introduction 157
10.2 Research Design and Methodology 163
10.3 Findings and Discussion 165
10.4 Conclusion 169
References170
xii CONTENTS

Part III Neurobiology and Neurochemistry of Addiction 173

11 Neurochemistry and Pharmacology of Addictions:

An African Perspective175
Andrew G. Mtewa, Serawit Deyno, Emmanuel L. Peter,
Annu Amanjot, Lucrèce Y. Ahovegbe, and Duncan C. Sesaazi
11.1 Introduction 175
11.2 Neurochemistry in Africa, a Brief Historical Perspective 176
11.3 Addiction amongst People of the African Descent 177
11.4 Chemical and Pharmacological Descriptions of Addiction
Episodes in Neurosciences 179
11.5 Withdrawal Symptoms in Drug Addiction 184
11.6 Treatment Approaches to Addictions 184
11.7 Neuroscience Research and Training in Modern-­Day
Africa 186
11.8 Conclusion 187
References188

12 Neurobiology of Substance of Abuse (Drugs) and

Behavioural Addiction in Africa193
Godfrey S. Bbosa
12.1 Introduction 193
12.2 Types of Addiction 195
12.3 Neurobiology of Addiction 198
12.4 Neurotransmitters Involved in Addiction 201
12.5 Addictive Drug Targets and Their Main Mechanisms of
Action in the Reward System201
12.6 Behavioural Addiction Targets and Their Main
Mechanisms of Action in the Reward System 204
12.7 Conclusion 207
References208

Part IV Substance and Non-substance Addiction 213

13 Prevalence of Alcohol Addiction in Africa215

Edith B. Milanzi and Yamikani Ndasauka
13.1 Introduction 215
13.2 Methods 218
 CONTENTS xiii

13.3 Results 219

13.4 Discussion 224
13.5 Conclusion 226
References227

14 Drug Use and Addiction Amongst Women with

Disabilities Who Are Commercial Sex Workers in
Zimbabwe229
Tafadzwa Rugoho
14.1 Introduction 229
14.2 Literature Review 231
14.3 Factors Driving Disabled Women Entrance into Sex
Work and Drug Abuse 233
14.4 Drug Addiction and Sex Work 236
14.5 Conclusion 237
References238

15 Drug Addiction among Youths in Zimbabwe: Social

Work Perspective241
Tatenda Nhapi
15.1 Introduction 241
15.2 Types of Addictive Substances 245
15.3 Conceptual Framework 246
15.4 Socio-economic Context249
15.5 Key Drivers of Substance Abuse 250
15.6 Addiction Mitigation Strategies 252
15.7 Conclusion 256
References257

16 Internet Addiction and Mental Health among College

Students in Malawi261
Tiwonge D. Manda, Edister S. Jamu, Elias P. Mwakilama,
and Limbika Maliwichi-Senganimalunje
16.1 Introduction 261
16.2 Literature Review 263
16.3 Methodology 267
16.4 Results and Discussion 271
16.5 Conclusion 278
References279
xiv CONTENTS

17 Curbing Tobacco Addiction in Kenya: Ethical and Legal

Challenges Arising281
Smith Ouma and Jane Wathuta
17.1 Introduction 281
17.2 Stakeholders in Tobacco Production and Control in
Kenya 282
17.3 Marketing and Sale Approaches in Favour of Tobacco
Companies 283
17.4 Prevalence of Tobacco Use and Addiction in Kenya 285
17.5 Public Health Implications of Tobacco Addiction 286
17.6 Legal and Policy Interventions on Tobacco Addiction in
Kenya 288
17.7 Ethical Consideration 293
17.8 Conclusion 300
References300

18 Conclusion: Defining the Future of Addiction Research in

South and East Africa307
Yamikani Ndasauka and Grivas Muchineripi Kayange

Index311
 Notes on Contributors

Lucrèce Y. Ahovegbe is a research fellow in the Department of Pharmacy

and Pharmacology at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology,
Uganda.
Annu Amanjot is a doctoral student in the Department of Pharmacy and
Pharmacology at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda.
Godfrey S. Bbosa is Lecturer in Pharmacology & Therapeutics at
Makerere University, Uganda.
Serawit Deyno is Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the Mbarara
University of Science and Technology in Uganda.
Beaton Galafa is an MA student in Comparative Education at Zhejiang
Normal University in China.
Anthony Mavuto Gunde is a research fellow at the Journalism Depart-
ment, Stellenbosch University. He is also Senior Lecturer in Media, Com-
munication and Cultural Studies in the Language and Communication
Skills department, Chancellor College, University of Malawi. Gunde
holds a PhD in Journalism Studies from Stellenbosch University and a
Master of Arts degree in Communications from Missouri State Univer-
sity. He has published works in a number of peer-reviewed journals and
books. Gunde has overarching interests in the political economy of mass
communications, communicating masculinities and the intersection of
religion, media and culture.

xv
xvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Edister S. Jamu is Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Malawi,

Chancellor College in Malawi.
Hambaba Jimaima is a lecturer and department head of Literature and
Languages at the University of Zambia in Zambia.
Grivas Muchineripi Kayange is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the
University of Malawi, Chancellor College in Malawi.
Wilfred Lajul is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Makerere University
in Uganda.
Gloria Baby Malambe is Senior Lecturer in African Languages and
Literature at the University of Swaziland in Swaziland.
Limbika Maliwichi-Senganimalunje is Senior Lecturer in Psychology
at the University of Malawi, Chancellor College in Malawi.
Tiwonge D. Manda is Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the
University of Malawi, Chancellor College in Malawi.
Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu is Lecturer in Philosophy of Education
at the University of Malawi, Chancellor College in Malawi.
Thaddeus Metz is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University
of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Edith B. Milanzi is a doctoral student at the Institute for Risk Assessment
Sciences (IRAS) at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Telamisile Phumlile Mkhatshwa is Lecturer in African Languages and
Literature at the University of Swaziland in Swaziland.
Andrew G. Mtewa is a doctoral student in Pharmacy and Pharmacology
at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda.
Elias P. Mwakilama is Lecturer in Mathematical Sciences at the
University of Malawi, Chancellor College in Malawi.
Dave Mankhokwe Namusanya is a researcher at Malawi-Liverpool-­
Wellcome Trust in Malawi.
Yamikani Ndasauka is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of
Malawi, Chancellor College in Malawi.
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xvii

Tatenda Nhapi is a social worker at West Kent Integrated Children in

Care Service in Kent, UK.
Smith Ouma is a doctoral researcher in the School of Law and Politics at
the University of Cardiff in Cardiff, Wales.
Emmanuel L. Peter is a research fellow at the National Institute for
Medical Research (NIMR) in Tanzania.
Tafadzwa Rugoho is a PhD student at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal
in South Africa.
Duncan C. Sesaazi is the head of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Mbarara
University of Science and Technology in Uganda.
Gabriel Simungala is a staff development fellow at the University of
Zambia in Zambia.
Jane Wathuta is a lecturer at the Institute for Family Studies & Ethics at
Strathmore University in Kenya.
 List of Figures

Fig. 13.1 Selected demographic characteristics of the study population

by country 220
Fig. 13.2 Overall alcohol prevalence by country 221
Fig. 13.3 Overall alcohol prevalence by country, separately by men and
women221
Fig. 13.4 Prevalence of addiction by country 223
Fig. 16.1 Distribution of IAT total scores 271
Fig. 16.2 Proportions of reported IAT score ranges for study
participants272
Fig. 16.3 Description of IAT scores by level of study 273
Fig. 16.4 Proportions of IAT scores by age group 274
Fig. 16.5 Distribution of IAT score ranges by year of study in college 275
Fig. 16.6 Description of probable common mental disorder students 276
Fig. 16.7 Scatter plot of IAT and SRQ total performances 277
Fig. 16.8 Distribution of existence or non-existence of common mental
disorder within each IAT category 278

xix
 List of Tables

Table 3.1 Cannabis value in African culture 40

Table 3.2 Cannabis seizures in Africa 45
Table 9.1 Semiotic nature of the codes 150
Table 9.2 WhatsApp and Facebook abbreviations 152
Table 9.3 WhatsApp and Facebook abbreviations and language 154
Table 12.1 Main classes of drugs of abuse, their main molecular targets,
and some of the mechanism(s) by which they increase DA in
NAc202
Table 13.1 Average number of days spent drinking alcohol within a
specified period 222
Table 16.1 Socio-demographic characteristics of study participants by
gender268
Table 16.2 Description of IAT total score ranges 270
Table 16.3 Proportions of IAT score ranges by age group 272
Table 16.4 Measure of association between IAT scores and socio-
demographic variables 273
Table 16.5 Proportions of probable CMD symptom existence by gender 276

xxi
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Making a Case for Addiction

in Africa

Yamikani Ndasauka and Grivas Muchineripi Kayange

This book focuses on two issues that have characterized modern studies
on addiction, mainly the understanding of the concept of addiction and
the problem of the prevalence of addiction in various cultures, with a spe-
cial focus on South and East Africa.
Pertaining to the general understanding of the concept of addiction,
academics have offered different explanations. The two common ways of
conceptualizing addiction are the Disease Model and the Will Power
Model (Ndasauka et al. 2017). In the Disease Model, addiction is concep-
tualized as a malfunction of a brain process that causes the individual to
engage in a particular activity repetitively and excessively. In the Will
Power Model, it is contended that addiction is a consequence of weakness
of the will, which may be considered as part of a negative disposition
brought about by bio-psycho-socio-cultural factors (Ndasauka et al. 2017).
Although studies in other parts of the world have been divided between
the Disease Model and the Will Power Model, there is no clear academic
development of this concept in the African context, as far as the literature
shows. Apparently, most of the studies have adopted the Western view

Y. Ndasauka (*) • G. M. Kayange

Chancellor College, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi
e-mail: yndasauka@cc.ac.mw; gkayange@cc.ac.mw

© The Author(s) 2019 1

Y. Ndasauka, G. M. Kayange (eds.), Addiction in South and East
Africa, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13593-5_1
2 Y. NDASAUKA AND G. M. KAYANGE

and have attempted either to treat addicts as sick (e.g. Liranso and Yosph
2017) or correct their will power by attempting to make them ethical.
The connection with ethics comes from the understanding that the Will
Power Model is reflective of or is a source of unethical behaviours.
Further complications in conceptualizing addiction in the African con-
text come from the fact that in most of the studies there is no clear demar-
cation between the concept of addiction and abuse. In fact, in most of the
studies these terms are used interchangeably (Liranso and Yosph 2017).
However, Mark Griffiths (2005) shows that these concepts are different.
For Griffiths, addiction requires satisfaction of the following components:
salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse.
Salience refers to the situation when a given activity becomes a funda-
mental activity in one’s life and dominates one’s way of thinking, feeling
and behaving. Mood modification refers to what an individual reports after
engaging in a particular activity. For example, one may report about feeling
high after an activity. Tolerance regards increasing involvement in a particu-
lar activity in order to repeat the experience that one previously had. For
example, an individual may want to smoke more cannabis in order to repeat
the past experience. Withdrawal symptoms refers to the unpleasant feelings
that are experienced when one reduces or discontinues a particular activity,
for example when one stops exercising and starts feeling uncomfortable,
such as being irritated. Conflict refers to a situation where the addicted
individual enters into conflict with those around him. For example, one
addicted to the internet will enter into conflict with those around him/her
as this will make the individual compromise other activities. Relapse refers
to the tendency of an individual to go back to the addiction status. For
example, after stopping masturbation for a month, one goes back to it.
While the concept of ‘addiction’ requires the fulfilment of all six ele-
ments, ‘abuse’ will only refer to some of the indicated aspect.
Nevertheless, most of the studies (as far as the literature shows) have
focused on the concept of abuse. In line with the emphasis put on the
concept of ‘abuse’, studies in the African context have mainly focused on
substance abuse and some behavioural addiction (Moodley et al. 2012;
Tshitangano and Tosin 2016).
In an attempt to build an African conceptualization of addiction and its
prevalence, this work is divided into five parts.
Part I focuses on the ‘Conceptualization of Addiction’ in the African
context. In Chap. 2, Thaddeus Metz focuses on the African conceptualiza-
tion of addiction in the context of morality. He specifically addresses the
 INTRODUCTION: MAKING A CASE FOR ADDICTION IN AFRICA 3

question of what makes addiction morally problematic, and seeks to

answer it by drawing on values salient in the sub-Saharan African philo-
sophical tradition. He argues that both African vitalism and communalism
merit consideration as rivals to accounts that Western ethicists would typi-
cally make, according to which addiction is immoral insofar as it degrades
rationality or autonomy, as per Kantianism, or causes pain or dissatisfac-
tion, as per utilitarianism. In Chap. 3, Grivas Muchineripi Kayange inves-
tigates the concept of addiction by focusing on cannabis use and addiction
in a traditional African setting. He argues that cannabis addiction is con-
ceptualized in African traditional culture as having an instrumental value
and not as a disease that requires treatment or as immoral. Cannabis is
used in different contexts for different purposes such as medicine, military
use, increasing energy during farming and sex, and for religious purposes.
It is further argued that the current African conception of cannabis as a
vice/illegal has generally been pushed by governments due to interna-
tional pressure and the understanding that the use of this plant for pur-
poses other than medicinal is increasing.
In Chap. 4, Wilfred Lajul investigates the African conceptualization of
addiction relative to African morality. He argues that, because addiction
takes place in the context of societies, then the ontological constitution of
an individual, the communal context and the choices made by the indi-
vidual are responsible for the prevalence of addiction in society. In Chap. 5,
Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu explores Ubuntu considerations in the
conceptualization and implementation of addiction-response frameworks
in Malawian schools. He highlights the prevalent individual-centric and
neo-liberal models of education on developing an autonomous individual
and equipping her with the knowledge and skills for job market competi-
tion as the modern, ultimate and exclusive aims of school practices and
education. The chapter proposes that meaningful approaches to addiction
should include Ubuntu’s relational rationality and not only the prevalent
agent-centric one.
Part II focuses on conceptualization of addiction in African languages,
music and culture. In Chap. 6, Telamisile Phumlile Mkhatshwa and Gloria
Baby Malambe discuss how Swazi people conceptualize addiction, specifi-
cally alcoholism and drug addiction. They argue that Swazi oral traditions
function as a tool that provides insight on how Swazis view addiction. They
analyse Swazi oral traditions–songs, proverbs and traditional terms–in order
to understand how Swazi people perceive addiction. Basing the research on
sociological criticism, they hypothesize that the current modern problem of
4 Y. NDASAUKA AND G. M. KAYANGE

substance and alcohol abuse in Swaziland stems from deep-seated Swazi

oral traditions. In Chap. 7, Beaton Galafa explores the concept of addiction
in the African literary world through a study of sex addiction. The author
studies different stories and indicates that there are multiple viewpoints of
addiction, and puritanism is one of the views that shapes the authors’ nar-
ratives in the works under review. The works in the anthologies are marked
by a complexity of themes ranging from sexuality through racism to social
injustice, with addiction coming out subtly in some more than it does
in others.
In Chap. 8, Dave Mankhokwe Namusanya discusses how urban music fits
in the narratives of drug addiction and sex addiction, especially as it relates to
young people. The chapter specifically discusses such narratives in the music
of Mafo, who is a ‘celebrated’ producer of urban music especially among
young people. In Chap. 9, Hambaba Jimaima and Gabriel Simungala engage
and interrogate social media addiction as it relates and extends to the emer-
gence of creative and innovative codes of communication and representation
amenable in the online semiotic landscapes. Taking as its point of departure
insights from Young’s Internet Addiction Test, Blommaert’s Supervernaculars,
and Kress’s Multimodality the chapter locates Zambia’s online narratives on
Facebook and WhatsApp as bearing socio-linguistic resources that transcend
the classical and normative attributes of language for communication. Thus,
the chapter leans on Blommaert’s Supervernaculars as well as Kress’s
Multimodality as it uncovers intricacies of this addictive, creative and innova-
tive way of communicating to learn its potentialities, constraints and perme-
ation across spaces. With superdiversity at play, the chapter establishes
whether these creative and innovative codes reflect trends that inform trans-
formation or distortions. The chapter concludes with a sketch detailing the
normative processes in local socio-linguistic spaces in the absence of the ped-
agogic spaces. In Chap. 10, Anthony Mavuto Gunde examines traditional
sources of masculine rhetoric employed by Malawian youth to glorify alcohol
addiction, their implications for social and behavioural change, and how the
sources and the implications in turn are represented by the local media. The
aim is to provide an overview of how macho rhetoric has been employed by
Malawian youth throughout history and its implications for social and behav-
ioural change with regard to addiction from an African point of view.
Part III focuses on neurobiology and neurochemistry of addiction rela-
tive to Africa. In Chap. 11, Andrew G. Mtewa, Serawit Deyno, Emmanuel
L. Peter, Annu Amanjot, Lucrèce Y. Ahovegbe and Duncan C. Sesaazi
outline the general chemical and pharmacological mechanisms involved in
 INTRODUCTION: MAKING A CASE FOR ADDICTION IN AFRICA 5

addiction, African participation in neuroscience research and studies, and

challenges and opportunities on the continent. They argue that research
and training in the area of neurochemistry and pharmacology in addiction
in Africa still remain limited due to inadequacy and lack of interest by
professionals specializing in the area and study facilities. Appropriate sys-
tematic investment in the field of neurochemistry is required across the
continent, which will enhance the understanding that currently Africa has
a multifaceted disciplinary approach, and be able to devise sound interven-
tions against addictions with no significant side effects. In Chap. 12,
Godfrey S. Bbosa investigates the neurobiology of addiction in Africa. He
seeks to interrogate African literature and compare the neurobiology of
psychoactive drugs and behavioural addiction.
Part IV examines substance and non-substance abuse in Africa. In
Chap. 13, Edith B. Milanzi and Yamikani Ndasauka study the prevalence of
addiction in Africa using 2015/2016 Demographic Health Survey (DHS)
data. After examining the previous trends and prevalence of alcohol use in
different countries, they discuss results on prevalence of alcohol use calculated
from the most recent DHS for each country separately. Then they attempt to
harmonize the data to calculate a pooled prevalence. They then determine
differences in alcohol consumption between males and females. In their con-
clusion, with reference to the data analysed, they make a case for alcohol
addiction in Africa. In Chap. 14, Tafadzwa Rugoho discusses the experiences
of sex workers with disabilities who are using drugs. They buy drugs from the
streets and these drugs can be hazardous to their health. The author laments
that the government of Zimbabwe and non-governmental organizations are
doing very little to combat the illicit sale of drugs on the streets.
In Chap. 15, Tatenda Nhapi uses a Merton critique to explore youths’
addiction to drugs in Zimbabwe’s current socio-economic discourse. The
author further analyses domains of youths’ drugs addiction and resultant
impacts. Finally, using a social work lens, this chapter offers pathways for
continued robust drug addiction mitigation among Zimbabwean youths.
In Chap. 16, Tiwonge D. Manda, Edister S. Jamu, Elias P. Mwakilama
and Limbika Maliwichi-Senganimalunje explore the phenomenon of
addictive internet use among college students in Malawi and how this
relates to probable cases of common mental disorders. The chapter applies
a combination of the Internet Addiction Test and the Self-Report
Questionnaire. The authors argue that despite growing acknowledgement
of the negative aspects of excessive internet use, there is still a dearth of
studies on the subject, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
6 Y. NDASAUKA AND G. M. KAYANGE

In Chap. 17, Smith Ouma and Jane Wathuta reflect on the prevalence
of tobacco use and addiction in Kenya. They further reiterate the contin-
ued relevance of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
and subsequent national legislation to aid the Kenyan government in pro-
moting and protecting public health, while urging the tobacco industry to
maintain high ethical standards in the conduct of their business.

References
Griffiths, M.D. 2005. A “Components” Model of Addiction Within a
Biopsychosocial Framework. Journal of Substance Use 10: 191–197.
Liranso, G.S., and D.M. Yosph. 2017. Drug Addiction and Mental Illness
Treatment in Sub Saharan Africa. Journal of Substance Abuse and Alcohol
5 (3): 1064.
Moodley, S.V., M.J. Matjila, and M.Y.H. Moosa. 2012. Epidemiology of Substance
Use Among Secondary School Learners in Atteridgeville, Gauteng. South
African Journal of Psychiatry 18 (1): 2–7.
Ndasauka, Y., et al. 2017. Received View of Addiction, Relapse and Treatment. In
Substance and Non-Substance Addiction, ed. X. Zhang, J. Shi, and R. Toa.
Singapore: Springer Nature.
Tshitangano, T.G., and O.H. Tosin. 2016. Substance Use Amongst Secondary
School Students in a Rural Setting in South Africa: Prevalence and Possible
Contributing Factors. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family
Medicine 8 (2): a934. https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v8i2.934.
 PART I

Conceptualization of Addiction
 CHAPTER 2

Addiction in the Light of African Values:

Undermining Vitality and Community

Thaddeus Metz

2.1   Introduction
Virtually no one believes that addiction is a good thing, with nearly all
finding it imprudent, and many deeming it also to be immoral. Where
there is normative controversy, it is about why, if at all, one should think
that addiction is unethical, and about whether agents such as the state
ought to punish or otherwise blame addicts. In this chapter, I set aside the
latter issues, which concern how to respond properly to those who are
addicted,1 and focus strictly on the former ones, about their potential

Reprinted by permission from Springer Nature: Springer Link, Monash Bioethics

Review. Addiction in the Light of African Values: Undermining Vitality and
Community, Metz Thaddeus, © Monash University 2018, 2018.

1
For discussion of whether and, if so, how to treat addicts as responsible for their condition,
or for the harmful effects that have come in the wake of it, see Morse (2000); Husak (2004);
the papers in Poland and Graham (2011a); Frank and Nagel (2017); and Pickard (2017).

T. Metz (*)
University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
e-mail: tmetz@uj.ac.za

© The Author(s) 2019 9

Y. Ndasauka, G. M. Kayange (eds.), Addiction in South and East
Africa, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13593-5_2
10 T. METZ

immorality. Precisely why should one think that it is immoral to become

an addict or to do what is likely to cause others to become addicted?
Which sorts of addiction are particularly unethical, and by virtue of what?
I critically explore answers to these questions by appealing to values
salient in the sub-Saharan African philosophical tradition. Specifically, I
draw on two major ways that African philosophers (writing in English in
the post-independence era) have understood foundational ethics, and
show how they each account for the immorality of addiction. According
to one characteristically African approach, a person’s basic aim as a moral
agent should be to promote life-force at least in herself and perhaps also in
others, and, according to the other, at bottom one morally should prize
communal (or harmonious) relationships with other people. I work to
tease out from the values of vitality and community explanations of when,
why, and to what extent various kinds of addiction are immoral.
I do not seek in this chapter to defend either vitality or community as
the best explanation of the immorality of addiction, instead arguing that
each of these characteristically African values2 grounds an independent
and plausible account of that. In addition, note that I am not really aiming
to demonstrate that addiction is in fact immoral, something beyond a
mere medical condition such as a broken leg. I am, in contrast, supposing
for the sake of argument that there is something morally problematic
about addiction and seeking attractive explanations of what that might be.
I conclude that both vitalism and communalism merit consideration as
rivals to explanations that Western ethicists would typically make, accord-
ing to which addiction is immoral insofar as it degrades rationality or
autonomy, as per Kantianism, or causes pain or dissatisfaction, à la
utilitarianism.
In the following I begin by indicating what I mean by the word “addic-
tion” and sketching the ways that dominant Western moral philosophies
would construe it as unethical (Sect. 2.2). I also take care to distinguish my
enquiry, into why one might sensibly think that at least salient instances of
addiction are immoral, from what is sometimes called the “moral model” of
addiction, which includes a “moralized” response to it. Next, I expound the
concept of life-force as a basic value in the African tradition of philosophy,

2
By “African,” “Western,” and similar geographical labels, I mean features that have been
salient over a large part of a territory and for a long time that differentiate it from many other
territories (on which see Metz 2015a). Hence, there is no “essentialist” suggestion here that
these features are exhaustive of, exclusive to, or invariably present in a given region.
 ADDICTION IN THE LIGHT OF AFRICAN VALUES: UNDERMINING VITALITY… 11

and draw out its implications for the immorality of ­addiction (Sect. 2.3),
after which I do the same for the concept of communal relationship (Sect.
2.4), in both cases contending that their accounts are revealing. I conclude
by raising important questions about addiction that have not been addressed
here, in particular those pertaining to the right ways to respond to those
forms of addiction that are plausibly deemed immoral (Sect. 2.5). I suggest
that the African values are also promising with respect to these issues, which
deserve to be considered elsewhere in depth.

2.2   Addiction, Immorality, and Western Ethics

In this section I provide some background to the debate about the immoral-
ity of addiction. Key aims here are to: define what is characteristically involved
in a state of addiction; make it clear that this chapter is about addiction’s
immorality, where that is distinct from other debates about addiction promi-
nent in the literature; and articulate the standard views in Western philoso-
phy and culture more generally about why addiction is morally objectionable.
I address African alternatives only in the following sections.
As with many other psychological disorders, debates about whether
there is an essence to addiction and what it might be continue in earnest.
There is as yet no clear consensus about how to distinguish the causes of
addiction, or even its effects, from what constitutes it (as has been pointed
out by Morse 2000, pp. 11–12 and Poland and Graham 2011b, pp. 2–3;
for some of these debates, see the papers by Levy 2013; Shelby 2016; and
the papers by Pickard and Ahmed 2018). I therefore define what I mean
by “addiction” by appealing to examples of it that nearly all those party to
those debates would accept, and by making some plausible, even if not
outright uncontentious, assumptions about it.
Paradigms of addiction on the part of human beings presumably
include the following: smoking a pack or two of cigarettes a day despite
the high risks of cancer, respiratory ailments, heart disease, and early
death; having taken cocaine on a daily basis for an extended period and
being willing to spend lots of money to continue the habit because of not
wanting to suffer from withdrawal; consistently engaging in unprotected
and promiscuous sexual behaviour to avoid painful feelings, despite
knowing the chances of acquiring HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases; being unable to engage with others socially and to complete
one’s work because one has a powerful desire to play games on the inter-
net; needing to place bets on horse races to the point of stealing from
12 T. METZ

one’s employer and family members. I also suppose that those engaging
in such behaviours would sincerely report that they “could not help
themselves,” “could not stop if they tried,” and the like.
These are what Anglo-American metaphysicians would tend to call the
“surface properties” (Putnam 1975) or “appearances” (Kripke 1980) of
human addiction, that is, what just about everyone familiar with the prop-
erty would ascribe to it, where philosophers, psychologists, and neurolo-
gists debate about what (if any) “deep structure” (Putnam 1975) or
“essence” (Kripke 1980), perhaps a particular operation of the brain or of
the will, might best account for all of them.
Rather than posit a specific, core mechanism with which one might
identify human addiction, I note some characteristic features of it, ones
that are commonly, even if not invariably, associated with the examples
above. First, there is typically a craving, an overwhelming urge, for a sub-
stance such as a drug or a process such as gambling, where the craving is
habitually satisfied. Second, there would often be psychological or physical
pain upon not satisfying the craving and “kicking the habit,” of which the
person is fearful and more generally strongly averse. Third, the craving
and the interest in avoiding pain have reduced a person’s self-control, that
is, her ability to recognize good judgement and to act in accordance with it.
These three are the most widely discussed contributory properties of addic-
tion, with the following ones being more contested. Some would say that a
fourth recurrent feature of addiction is denial, the failure to apprehend one’s
own motivations, to appreciate risks, or to recognize harm one is bringing on
others (Ainslie 2013; Pickard 2016). Others would add a fifth, that often
addiction is a way of coping with or “self-medicating” a psychological wound
or stressor, such as self-hatred or abuse (Khantzian 1997; Pickard and Pearce
2013; Shelby 2016). Still others would suggest a sixth, that addiction, prop-
erly speaking, involves at least the risk of substantial harm to the addict or
those close to her (see especially Pickard and Sinnott-Armstrong 2013).
My claim is not that any particular set of these properties is necessary
and sufficient for something to count as “addiction,” but rather that
addicted people typically exemplify some cluster of them, and that such a
construal of addiction is enough for us to make ethical headway, which is
the aim of this chapter. This approach means that sometimes I will need to
hedge my phrasing, for example, when it is unclear whether the moral
problem is with addiction as such or with a particular form of it. However,
such hedging will not interfere with the ability to point to specific ways of
behaving that are ethically objectionable.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Even Stephen
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Even Stephen

Author: Charles A. Stearns

Illustrator: Ed Emshwiller

Release date: September 20, 2023 [eBook #71694]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Royal Publications, Inc, 1957

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVEN

STEPHEN ***
 EVEN STEPHEN

By CHARLES A. STEARNS

Illustrated by EMSH

It only takes one man to destroy a pacifist

Utopia—if he has a gun, and will use it!

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Infinity July 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The henna-haired young man with the vermilion cape boarded
Stephen's vehicle on the thirty-third air level, less than two whoops
and a holler from a stationary police float, by the simple expedient of
grappling them together with his right arm, climbing over into the seat
beside Stephen, and allowing his own skimmercar to whisk off at a
thousand miles an hour with no more control than its traffic-dodging
mechanism afforded.
The peregrinator was barbarically splendid, and his curls showed the
effect of a habitual use of some good hair undulant. More to the point,
he had a gun. It was one of those wicked moisture rifles which can
steam the flesh off a man's bones at three hundred paces. Quite
illegal.
He smiled at Stephen. His dentures were good. They were stainless
steel, but in this day and time that was to be expected. Most of his
generation, in embryo during the last Blow-down, had been born
without teeth of their own.
"Sorry to inconvenience you, Citizen," he said, "but the police were
right on my brush that time. Please turn right at the next air corridor
and head out to sea."
And when Stephen, entranced, showed no inclination to obey, he
prodded him with the weapon. Prodded him in a most sensitive part
of his anatomy. "I have already killed once today," he said, "and it is
not yet eleven o'clock."
"I see," Stephen said stiffly, and changed course.
He might simply have exceeded the speed limit in the slow traffic
stream and gotten them arrested, but he sensed that this would not
do. A half-memory, playing around in his cranium, cried out for
recognition. Somewhere he had seen this deadly young man before,
and with him there was associated a more than vague
unpleasantness.
Soon the blue Pacific was under them. They were streaming
southwest by south at an altitude of eighty miles. Stephen was not
terrified at being kidnapped, for he had never heard of such a thing,
but there was one thing that did worry him. "I shall be late for work,"
he said.
"Work," the young man said, "is a bore."
Stephen was shocked. Work had always been the sacred principle of
his life; a rare and elevating sweetness to be cultivated and savored
whenever it might be offered. He, himself, had long been allotted
alternate Thursday afternoons as biological technician at Mnemonic
Manufactures, Plant No. 103, by the Works Administration, and he
had not missed a day for many years. This happened to be one of his
Thursdays, and if he did not arrive soon he would be late for the four-
hour shift. Certainly no one else could be expected to relinquish a
part of his shift to accommodate a laggard.
"Work is for prats," the young man said again. "It encourages
steatopygia. My last work date was nine years ago, and I am glad
that I never went back."
Stephen now felt a surge of fear at last. Such unregenerates as this
man were said to exist, but he had never met one before. They were
the shadowy Unemployed, who, barred from government
dispensation, must live by their wits alone. Whimsical nihilists, they,
who were apt to requisition human life, as well as property, at a
breath's notice.
Small lightning sheeted in front of their bow. A voice crackled in the
communications disk. "Attention! This is an official air barricade.
Proceed to Level Twelve to be cleared."
"Pretend to comply," the young man said. "Then, when you are six or
eight levels below these patrol skimmers following us, make a run for
it toward that cloud bank on the horizon."
"Very well," Stephen said. He had quickly weighed the gloomy
possibilities, and decided that his best chance for survival lay in
instant compliance with this madman's wishes, however outrageous
they might seem.
He nosed down, silently flitting past brightly painted fueling blimp
platforms and directional floats with their winking beacons. To the
east, the City lay, with its waffle-like subdivisions, its height-
foreshortened skyscrapers, and its vast Port, where space rockets
winked upward every few minutes.
"If you were only on one of those!" Stephen said feelingly.
His abductor smiled—a rather malicious smile. "Who wants to go to
Mars?" he said. "Earth is such a fascinating place—why leave it?
After all, only here, upon this exquisitely green, clean sphere of ours
can the full richness of man's endeavors be enjoyed. And you would
have me abandon it all!"
"I was only thinking aloud," Stephen said.
The smile withered. "Mind your altitude," the young man said. "And
try no tricks."
Twenty seconds had passed. Thirty-five....
"Now."
Tight-lipped, Stephen nodded, leveled off, and energized the plates
with their full, formidable power. They shot past the police stationary,
and into the great, azure curve of the horizon at a pace which would
have left Stephen breathless at any other time. There came a splutter
of ether-borne voices.
The henna-haired young man turned off the receiver.
In an instant there were skimmers in hot pursuit, but the cloud bank
loomed close, towering and opaque. Now the wisps of white were
about them, and a curious, acrid smell filtered in through the aerating
system. The odor of ozone. The skimmer began to shudder violently,
tossing them about in their seats.
"I have never experienced such turbulence," Stephen exclaimed. "I
believe this is no ordinary cloud!"
"You are right," the henna-haired young man said. "This is sanctuary."

"Who are you?" Stephen said. "Why are you running from the
police?"
"Apparently you don't read the newspapers."
"I keep abreast of the advances in technology and philosophy."
"I meant the tabloid news. There is such a page, you know, in the
back of every newspaper. No, no; I perceive that you never would
allow yourself to become interested in such plebeian goings-on.
Therefore, let me introduce myself. I am called Turpan."
"The Bedchamber Assassin! I knew that I'd seen your face
somewhere."
"So you do sneak and read the scandals, like most of your
mechanics' caste. Tch, tch! To think that you secretly admire us, who
live upon the brink and savor life while it lasts."
"I could hardly admire you. You are credited with killing twelve
women." Stephen shuddered.
Turpan inclined his handsome head sardonically. "Such is the artistic
license of the press. Actually there were only nine—until this morning,
I regret to say. And one of those died in the ecstacy of awakening to
find me hovering over her virginal bed. I suppose she had a weak
heart. I kill only when it is unavoidable. But so long as my lady will
wear jewels and keep them on her boudoir dressing table—" He
shrugged. "Naturally, I am sometimes interrupted."
"And then you murder them."
"Let us say that I make them a sporting proposition. I am not bad to
look upon—I think you will admit that fact. Unless they happen to be
hysterical to begin with, I can invariably dominate them. Face the
facts, my stodgy technician. Murder is a term for equals. A woman is
a lesser, though a fascinating, creature. The law of humane grace
does not apply equally to her. It must be a humiliating thing to be a
woman, and yet it is necessary that a supply of them be provided.
Must we who are fortunate in our male superiority deny our natures to
keep from trampling them occasionally? No indeed. 'Sensualists are
they; a trouble and a terror is the hero to them. Thus spake
Zarathustra'."
"That is a quotation from an ancient provincial who was said to be as
mad as you are," Stephen said, rallying slightly, but revising his
opinion of the uncouthness of his captor.
"I have studied the old books," Turpan said. "They are mostly pap, but
once I thought that the answers might be discovered there. You may
set down now."
"But we must be miles from any land."
"Take a look," Turpan said.
And Stephen looked down through the clearing mists and beheld an
island.

"It happens to be a very special island," Turpan said. "The jurisdiction

of no policeman extends here."
"Fantastic! What is it called?"
"I should imagine that they will call it 'Utopia Fourteen', or 'New
Valhalla'. Idealists seldom possess one iota of originality. This is the
same sort of experiment that has been attempted without success
from times immemorial. A group of visionaries get together, wangle a
charter from some indulgent government and found a sovereign
colony in splendid isolation—and invariably based upon impossible
ideas of anarchism."
The skimmercar shook itself like a wet terrier, dropped three hundred
feet in a downdraft, recovered and glided in to a landing as gently as
a nesting seabird. They were upon a verdant meadow.
Stephen looked around. "One could hardly call this splendid
isolation," he remarked. "We are less than five minutes from the City,
and I am sure that you will be reasonable enough to release me, now
that I've brought you here, and allow me to return. I promise not to
report this episode."
"Magnanimous of you," Turpan said, "but I'm afraid that what you ask
is impossible."
"Then you refuse to let me go?"
"No, no. I merely point out that the cloud through which we arrived at
this island was not, as you noted, a natural one. It had the ominous
look of a Molein Field in the making. In other words, a space
distortion barrier the size of which Earth has never seen."
And Stephen, looking around them, saw that the cloud had, indeed
dispersed; and that in its place a vast curtain of shifting, rippling light
had arisen, extending upward beyond sight and imagination, to the
left and to the right, all around the circle of the horizon, shutting them
in, shutting the rest of the universe out. Impenetrable. Indestructible.
"You knew of this," Stephen accused. "That's why you brought me
here."
"I admit that there were rumors that such a project might be
attempted today. The underworld has ears," Turpan said. "That we
arrived just in time, however, was merely a circumstance. And even
you, my stolid friend, must admit the beauty of the aurora of a Molein
Field."
"We are lost," Stephen said, feeling stricken. "A distortion barrier
endures forever."
"Fah!" the Bedchamber Assassin replied. "We have a green island for
ourselves, which is much better, you'll agree, than being executed.
And let me tell you, there are many security officials who ache to
pump my twitching body full of the official, but deadly, muscarine.
Besides, there is a colony here. Men and women. I intend to thrive."
But what of me! Stephen wanted to cry out. I have committed no
crime, and I shall be lost away from my books and my work!
However, he pulled himself together, and noted pedantically that the
generation of a Molein Field was a capital offense, anyway. (This
afforded little comfort, in that once a group of people have
surrounded themselves with a Molein Field they are quite
independent, as Turpan had observed, of the law.)
When they had withdrawn a few yards from the skimmercar, Turpan
sighted upon it with the moisture rifle and the plastic hull melted and
ran down in a mass of smoking lava. "The past is past," Turpan said,
"and better done with. Come, let us seek out our new friends."

There were men and there were women, clamorously cheerful at their
work, unloading an ancient and rickety ferrycopter in the surprise
valley below the cliffs upon which Stephen and Turpan stood.
Stephen, perspiring for the first time in his life, was almost caught up
in their enthusiasm as he watched that fairy village of plasti-tents
unfold, shining and shimmering in the reflected hues of the Molein
aurora.
When Turpan had satisfied himself that there was no danger, they
descended, scrambling down over rough, shaly and precipitous
outcroppings that presented no problem for Stephen, but to which
Turpan, oddly enough, clung with the desperation of an acrophobe as
he lowered himself gingerly from crag to crag—this slightly-built
young man who had seemed nerveless in the sky. Turpan was out of
his métier.
A man looked up and saw them. He shouted and waved his arms in
welcome. Turpan laughed, thinking, perhaps, that the welcome would
have been less warm had his identity been known here.
The man climbed part way up the slope to meet them. He was
youthful in appearance, with dark hair and quick, penetrating eyes.
"I'm the Planner of Flight One," he said. "Are you from Three?"
"We are not," Turpan said.
"Flight Two, then."
Turpan, smiling like a basilisk, affected to move his head from side to
side.
And the Planner looked alarmed. "Then you must be the police," he
said, "for we are only three groups. But you are too late to stop our
secession, sir. The Molein barrier exists—let the Technocracy
legislate against us until it is blue in the face. And there are three
hundred and twelve of us here—against the two of you."
"Sporting odds," Turpan said. "However, we are merely humble
heretics, like yourselves, seeking asylum. Yes indeed. Quite by
accident my friend and I wandered into your little ovum universe as it
was forming, and here we are, trapped as it would seem."
The crass, brazen liar.
The Planner was silent for a moment. "It is unlikely that you would
happen upon us by chance at such a time," he said at last. "However,
you shall have asylum. We could destroy you, but our charter
expressly forbids it. We hold human life—even of the basest sort—to
be sacred."
"Oh, sacred, quite!" Turpan said.
"There is only one condition of your freedom here. There are one
hundred and fifty-six males among us in our three encampments, and
exactly the same number of females. The system of numerical pairing
was planned for the obvious reason of physical need, and to avoid
trouble later on."
"A veritable idyl."
"It might have been. We are all young, after all, and unmarried. Each
of us is a theoretical scientist in his or her own right, with a high
hereditary intelligence factor. We hope to propagate a superior race
of limited numbers for our purpose—ultimate knowledge. Naturally a
freedom in the choice of a mate will be allowed, whenever possible,
but both of you, as outsiders, must agree to live out the rest of your
natural lives—as celibates."
Turpan turned to Stephen with a glint of humor in his spectacular
eyes. "Celibacy has a tasteless ring to it," he said. "Don't you think
so?"
"I can only speak for myself," Stephen replied coldly. "We have
nothing in common. But for you I should still be in my world.
Considering that we are intruders, however, the offer seems
generous enough. Perhaps I shall be given some kind of work. That
is enough to live for."
"What is your field?" the Planner asked Stephen.
"I am—or was—a biological technician."
"That is unfortunate," the Planner said, with a sudden chill in his
voice. "You see, we came here to get away from the technicians.
"I," said Turpan haughtily, "was a burglar. However, I think I see the
shape of my new vocation forming at this instant. I see no weapons
among your colonists."
"They are forbidden here," the Planner said. "I observe that you have
a moisture rifle. You will be required to turn it over to us, to be
destroyed."
Turpan chuckled. "Now you are being silly," he said. "If you have no
weapons, it must have occurred to you that you cannot effectively
forbid me mine."
"You cannot stand alone against three hundred."
"Of course I can," Turpan said. "You know quite well that if you try to
overpower me, scores of you will die. What would happen to your
vaunted sexual balance then? No indeed, I think you will admit to the
only practical solution, which is that I take over the government of the
island."
The officiousness and the élan seemed to go out of the Planner at
once, like the air out of a pricked balloon. He was suddenly an old
young man. Stephen saw, with a sinking feeling, that the audacity of
Turpan had triumphed again.
"You have the advantage of me at the moment," the Planner said. "I
relinquish my authority to you in order to avoid bloodshed. Henceforth
you will be our Planner. Time will judge my action—and yours."
"Not your Planner," Turpan said. "Your dictator."

There could be but one end to it, of course. One of the first official
actions of Dictator Turpan, from the eminence of his lofty, translucent
tent with its red and yellow flag on top, was to decree a social festival,
to which the other two settlements were invited for eating, drinking
and fraternization unrestrained. How unrestrained no one (unless
Turpan) could have predicted until late that evening, when the aspect
of it began to be Bacchanalian, with the mores and the inhibitions of
these intellectuals stripped off, one by one, like the garments of
civilization.
Stephen was shocked. Secretly he had approved, at least, of the
ideals of these rebels. But what hope could there be if they could so
easily fall under the domination of Turpan?
Still, there was something insidiously compelling about the man.
As for Stephen, he had been allotted his position in this new life, and
he was not flattered.
"You shall be my body servant," Turpan had said. "I can more nearly
trust you than anyone else, since your life, as well as mine, hangs in
the balance of my ascendance."
"I would betray you at the earliest opportunity."
Turpan laughed. "I am sure that you would. But you value your life,
and you will be careful. Here with me you are safer from intrigue.
Later I shall find confidants and kindred spirits here, no doubt, who
will help me to consolidate my power."
"They will rise and destroy you before that time. You must eventually
sleep."
"I sleep as lightly as a cat. Besides, so long as they are inflamed, as
they are tonight, with one another, they are not apt to become
inflamed against me. For every male there is a female. Not all of them
will pair tonight—nor even in a week. And by the time this obsession
fails to claim their attention I shall be firmly seated upon my throne.
There will be no women left for you or me, of course, but you will
have your work, as you noted—and it will consist of keeping my boots
shined and my clothing pressed."
"And you?" Stephen said bitterly.
"Ah, yes. What of the dictator? I have a confession to make to you,
my familiar. I prefer it this way. If I should simply choose a woman,
there would be no zest to it. Therefore I shall wait until they are all
taken, and then I shall steal one—each week. Now go out and enjoy
yourself."
Stephen, steeped in gloom, left the tent. No one paid any attention to
him. There was a good deal of screaming and laughing. Too much
screaming.
He walked along the avenue of tents. Beyond the temporary
floodlights of the atomic generators it was quite dark. Yet around the
horizon played the flickering lights of the aurora, higher now that the
sun was beyond the sea. A thousand years from now it would be
there, visible each night, as common to that distant generation as
starlight.
From the shadow of the valley's rim he emerged upon a low
promontory above the village. Directly below where he stood, a
woman, shrieking, ran into the blackness of a grove of small trees.
She was pursued by a man. And then she was pursued no more.
He turned away, toward the seashore. It lay half a mile beyond the
settlement of Flight One.
Presently he came upon a sandy beach. The sea was dark and calm;
there was never any wind here. Aloft the barrier arose more plainly
than before, touching the ocean perhaps half a mile from shore, but
invisible at sea-level. And beyond it—he stared.
There were the lights of a great city, shining across the water. The
lights twinkled like jewels, beckoning nostalgically to him. But then he
remembered that a Molein Field, jealously allowing only the passage
of photonic energy, was said to have a prismatic effect—and yet
another, a nameless and inexplicable impress, upon light itself. The
lights were a mirage. Perhaps they existed a thousand miles away;
perhaps not at all. He shivered.
And then he saw the object in the water, bobbing out there a hundred
yards from the beach. Something white—an arm upraised. It was a
human being, swimming toward him, and helplessly arm-weary by the
looks of that desperate motion! It disappeared, appeared again,
struggling more weakly.
Stephen plunged into the water, waded as far as he could, and swam
the last fifty feet with a clumsy, unpracticed stroke, just in time to
grasp the swimmer's hair.
And then he saw that the swimmer, going down for the last time, was
a girl.

They rested upon the warm, white sand until she had recovered from
her ordeal. Stephen prudently refrained from asking questions. He
knew that she belonged to Flight Two or Flight Three, for he had seen
her once or twice before this evening at the festival. Her short,
platinum curls made her stand out in a crowd. She was not beautiful,
and yet there was an essence of her being that appealed strongly to
him; perhaps it was the lingering impression of her soft-tanned body
in his arms as he had carried her to shore.
"You must have guessed that I was running away," she said presently.
"Running away? But how—where—"
"I know. But I had panicked, you see. I was already dreadfully
homesick, and then came this horrid festival. I couldn't bear seeing us
make such—such fools of ourselves. The women—well, it was as if
we had reverted to animals. One of the men—I think he was a
conjectural physicist by the name of Hesson—made advances to me.
I'm no formalist, but I ran. Can you understand that?"
"I also disapprove of debauchery," Stephen said.
"I ran and ran until I came, at last, to this beach. I saw the lights of a
city across the water. I am a strong swimmer and I struck out without
stopping to reconsider. It was a horrible experience."
"You found nothing."
"Nothing—and worse than nothing. There is a place out there where
heaven and hell, as well as the earth and the sky, are suspended. I
suddenly found myself in a halfworld where all directions seemed to
lead straight down. I felt myself slipping, sliding, flowing downward.
And once I thought I saw a face—an impossible face. Then I was
expelled and found myself back in normal waters. I started to swim
back here."
"You were very brave to survive such an ordeal," he said. "Would that
I had been half so courageous when I first set eyes upon that devil,
Turpan! I might have spared all of you this humiliation."
"Then—you are the technician who came with Turpan?"
He nodded. "I was—and am—his prisoner. I have more cause to hate
him than any of you."
"In that case I shall tell you a secret. The capitulation of our camps to
Turpan's tyranny was planned. If you had counted us, you would
have found that many of the men stayed away from the festival
tonight. They are preparing a surprise attack upon Turpan from
behind the village when the celebration reaches its height and he will
expect it least. I heard them making plans for a coup this afternoon."
"It is ill-advised. Many of your men will die—and perhaps for nothing.
Turpan is too cunning to be caught napping."
"You could be of help to them," she said.
He shrugged. "I am only a technician, remember? The hated ruling
class of the Technocracy that you left. A supernumerary, even as
Turpan. I cannot help myself to a place in your exclusive society by
helping you. Come along. We had better be getting back."
"Where are we going?"
"Straight to Turpan," he said.

"I cannot believe that you would tell me this," Turpan said, striding
back and forth, lion-like, before the door of his tent. "Why have you?"
"Because, as you observed, my fate is bound with yours," Stephen
said. "Besides, I do not care to be a party to a massacre."
"It will give me great pleasure to massacre them."
"Nevertheless, their clubs and stones will eventually find their marks.
Our minutes are numbered unless you yield."
Turpan's eyes glowed with the fires of his inner excitement. "I will
never do that," he said. "I think I like this feeling of urgency. What a
pity that you cannot learn to savor these supreme moments."
"Then at least let this woman go. She has no part in it."
Turpan allowed his eyes to run over the figure of the girl, standing like
a petulant naiad, with lowered eyes and trembling lip, and found that
figure, in its damp and scanty attire, gratifying.
"What is your name?"
"Ellen," she said.
"You will do," Turpan said. "Yes, you will do very well for a hostage."
"You forget that these men are true idealists," Stephen said.
"Yesterday they may have believed in the sanctity of human life.
Today they believe that they will be sanctified by spilling their own
blood—and they are not particular whether that blood is male or
female. If you would survive, it will be necessary for us to retrench."
"What is your suggestion, technician?"
"I know a place where we can defend ourselves against any attack.
There is an elevation not far from here where, if you recall, we stood
that first time and spied upon the valley. It is sheer on all sides. We
could remain there until daylight, or until you have discouraged this
rebellion. It would be impossible for anyone, ascending in that loose
shale, to approach us with stealth."
"It is a sound plan," Turpan said. "Gather a few packages of
concentrates and sufficient water."
"I already have them."
"Then take this woman and lead the way. I will follow. And keep in
mind that in the event of trouble both of you will be the first to lose the
flesh off your bones from this moisture rifle."
Stephen went over and took Ellen by the hand. "Courage," he
whispered.
"I wish that both of us had drowned," she said.
But she came with them docilely enough, and Stephen drew a sigh of
relief when they were out of the illuminated area without being
discovered.
"Walk briskly now," Turpan said, "but do not run. That is something
that I have learned in years of skirmishing with the police."
At the foot of the cliff Stephen stopped and removed his shoes.
"What are you doing?" Turpan demanded suspiciously.
"A precaution against falling," Stephen said.
"I prefer to remain fully dressed," Turpan said. "Lead on."
Stephen now found that, though the pain was excruciating, his bare
feet had rendered him as sure-footed as a goat, while Turpan